THIS WEEKEND The
long-awaited super hero sequel The Dark Knight
Rises claimed the worldwide box office crown under a dark cloud
caused by a mass murderer's attack on one of the film's Thursday night
post-midnight showings in Aurora, Colorado. Warner Bros., which did not
report box office estimates over the weekend in light of the tragedy, announced
on Monday that the final film in Christopher Nolan's wildly popular Batman
trilogy grossed $160.9M over the Friday-to-Sunday period making it the
third largest opening weekend of all-time and the best ever for a 2D pic.
Only The Avengers and Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 debuted better with $207.4M
and $169.2M, respectively. Both were offered in 3D with grosses including
the extra 3D surcharges. All three opened in IMAX locations. The previous
2D record was held by The Dark Knight
which launched with $158.4M in July 2008.

Though it is almost impossible to measure for sure, it did seem that
the tragedy had a negative impact on ticket sales for Rises
over the weekend. Understandably, some potential moviegoers may not have
been in the mood to go out and see the Bane flick, or any other movie for
that matter. Pre-release expectations had the PG-13 film opening north
of the $180M mark which itself would have been roughly equal to the same
size opening weekend audience that The Dark Knight
attracted, but paying today's 2D and large-format ticket prices.

While the curiosity over Heath Ledger's performance was no longer a
factor this time, Rises still should
have benefited from the massive good will that its predecessor created.
When a franchise film is so well-liked, its followup usually opens bigger
- especially if the release pattern is the same. Iron
Man, which like the same summer's TDK
had great legs with 70% of the final gross coming after the first weekend,
saw its sequel open on the very same frame two years later with a 30% higher
gross. Plus Nolan brought more starpower into the weekend this time than
he did in 2008 with fans loving both Knight
and 2010's Inception. Also, the buzz
surrounding TDKR being the final Batman
saga from the Nolan-Bale camp also added to the excitement.

However, signs indicate that The Dark Knight
Rises could eventually pick up much of the lost business in
the long term. While reviews were not as glowing as they were for the Joker
flick, audiences that came out did approve giving Rises
a solid A grade from CinemaScore. And threequels usually burn through their
audience faster but the Saturday-to-Sunday decline was almost as powerful
as that of the 2008 installment which could be due to some fans shifting
from the beginning of the weekend to the end as more time passed since
the terrorist attack occurred. Overall, roughly 18 million people across
North America went out and saw The Dark Knight
Rises in theaters over the weekend.

Both Rises and the last Dark
Knight had similar release patterns. Both bowed on Fridays in
mid-July, had no 3D surcharges, and had IMAX runs. The new film opened
to $75.8M on Friday including $30.6M in Thursday night post-midnight shows.
That resulted in the second best midnight launch after the final Potter's
$43.5M and the third biggest opening day ever trailing Potter
($91.1M) and The Avengers
($80.8M). The first-day result was 13% better than the $67.2M of TDK.
At the time, the Two Face chapter broke the all-time records for midnights,
opening day, and opening weekend.

Saturday sales for Rises fell 41%
to $44.9M. That was a bigger fall than the 29% that the last chapter suffered.
Given the bigger midnight gross component in Friday's take and the fact
that it was a threequel with more upfront demand, the larger Saturday drop
was expected. But Sunday for TDKR dipped
only 11% to $40.2M. The 2008 pic eased just 9% that day so for the followup
to be so close is a positive sign for the longevity of Rises.

Due to the unprecedented nature of the tragedy which left 12 people
dead and 58 others wounded, it was impossible to determine exactly how
much of an effect the event had on nationwide moviegoing. Many potential
moviegoers planning a trip to the local cinema may have changed their minds,
understandably so. No previous tragedy in recent times has had this direct
of a connection to moviegoing. The attacks on September 11 - a very different
type of catastrophe - occurred on a Tuesday during what is usually the
slowest time of the year at the box office and the new movie releases scheduled
for that Friday were small titles anyway. The Aurora shooting took place
inside a movie theater during the first midnight showing of one of the
year's most anticipated blockbusters killing innocent people who just came
out to watch a fun summer film with friends and relatives.

For the whole weekend, Rises played
in 4,404 theaters making it the second widest opening ever behind just
the 4,468 of 2010's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
The weekend average was a sensational $36,532. 332 locations featured IMAX
screens and those venues contributed a whopping $19M this weekend, or 12%
of the weekend gross, for a scorching $57,263 average. An hour of the film
featured footage shot with IMAX cameras - double that of TDK.

The Dark Knight Rises is getting
a slower roll-out overseas than its super hero counterparts The
Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man
which both launched in much of the world a week ahead of North America.
The Catwoman pic debuted in 17 markets and grossed a spectacular $88M this
weekend (including $4.8M from IMAX screens) making for a huge $248.9M global
bow. Leading territories were the United Kingdom with $22.5M, Korea with
$15.7M, and Australia with $15.5M. 40 more countries debut this coming
weekend simultaneously with the kick-off of the London Olympics.

Falling a sharp 56% in its second weekend was the animated fourquel
Ice Age: Continental Drift with $20.4M.
Fox has banked $88.8M in the first ten days which just about matched the
$87.3M that the first film in the franchise grossed at this point in its
run ten years ago when ticket prices were much lower and no 3D boost was
there. The last installment, 2009's Dawn of the
Dinosaurs, stood at $100.6M after ten days in July of that year
on its way to $196.6M. But this series has flourished overseas and Drift
has been no exception boosting its international sum to a fantastic $442.7M
for a worldwide haul so far of $531.5M on its way to $750M or more depending
on how it holds up against the Olympics.

With Batman swinging into theaters, The Amazing
Spider-Man took an amazing tumble. The big-budget Sony reboot
collapsed by 69% in its third weekend taking in $10.9M giving the 3D actioner
$228.6M after 20 days of release. Overseas business rose to $386M for a
global gross of $614.6M to date. $750M is possible on this 3D title too.
Falling 55% in its fourth round was the comedy sensation Ted
which collected another $10M lifting the cume to an astounding $180.4M.
Universal should find its way past the $200M mark with this Mark Wahlberg
starrer.

Pixar's Brave surpassed Madagascar
3 this weekend to become the summer's top toon. The Disney release
grossed $6M, off 46%, bumping the cume to $208.8M. Paramount's afro circus
sequel from DreamWorks Animation has banked $207.6M domestically so far.
Dropping 56% to sixth place with $4.3M was the Channing Tatum hit Magic
Mike which joined the century club with $102M taken in to date.

Oliver Stone's violent crime drama Savages
plunged 64% to $3.4M for $40.1M so far for Universal. Lionsgate followed
with its comedy Madea's Witness Protection
which grossed $2.3M, down 60%, putting the pic at $60.3M.

Wes Anderson collected $1.8M for his hit Moonrise
Kingdom, off 51%, bringing the total to $36.1M after its ninth
weekend for Focus. Fellow American auteur Woody Allen saw his comedy To
Rome with Love drop 43% to $1.4M in its fifth frame boosting
the cume for the Sony Classics title to $11.1M.

Among new platform releases, Magnolia's The
Queen of Versailles bowed to an estimated $54,000 from just
three locations for a solid $18,000 average. The well-reviewed 3D pic Hara-Kiri:
Death of a Samurai debuted to an estimated $12,275 from solo
playdates in New York and Los Angeles (with most business coming from the
Gotham house) averaging $6,138 for Tribeca Film. Internationally, Paramount's
The Dictator joined the century club
with an overseas total to date of $101.8M.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $221.4M which was up 24% from
last year when Captain America: The First Avenger
opened at number one with $65.1M; and up 47% from 2010 when
Inception remained on top with $42.7M.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including
projections, for next weekend when The Watch
and Step Up Revolution both open.

#

Title

Jul 20 - 22

Jul 13 - 15

% Chg.

Theaters

Weeks

AVG

Cumulative

Distributor

1

The Dark Knight
Rises

$ 160,887,295

4,404

1

$ 36,532

$ 160,887,295

Warner
Bros.

2

Ice Age: Continental
Drift

20,416,978

46,629,259

-56.2

3,886

2

5,254

88,840,284

Fox

3

The Amazing
Spider-Man

10,887,111

34,628,104

-68.6

3,753

3

2,901

228,611,425

Sony

4

Ted

10,011,610

22,410,855

-55.3

3,214

4

3,115

180,431,425

Universal

5

Brave

6,024,987

11,160,522

-46.0

2,899

5

2,078

208,774,173

Disney

6

Magic Mike

4,291,432

9,021,123

-52.4

2,606

4

1,647

101,966,459

Warner
Bros.

7

Savages

3,398,880

9,393,840

-63.8

2,336

3

1,455

40,055,075

Universal

8

Madea's Witness
Protection

2,253,074

5,584,027

-59.7

1,540

4

1,463

60,289,622

Lionsgate

9

Moonrise Kingdom

1,831,471

3,704,507

-50.6

895

9

2,046

36,087,959

Focus

10

To Rome With
Love

1,420,891

2,469,235

-42.5

552

5

2,574

11,107,993

Sony
Classics

11

Madagascar
3

1,350,946

3,669,675

-63.2

1,261

7

1,071

207,626,201

Paramount

12

Katy Perry:
Part of Me

1,148,494

3,800,607

-69.8

1,123

3

1,023

22,612,706

Paramount

13

Beasts of the
Southern Wild

763,443

790,535

-3.4

129

4

5,918

2,855,142

Fox
Searchlight

14

The Avengers

620,411

1,398,765

-55.6

495

12

1,253

615,058,425

Disney

15

Snow White
and the Huntsman

427,405

1,022,270

-58.2

409

8

1,045

152,589,315

Universal

16

The Best Exotic
Marigold Hotel

416,791

651,051

-36.0

288

12

1,447

43,852,771

Fox
Searchlight

17

The Intouchables

313,547

356,333

-12.0

91

9

3,446

7,072,702

Weinstein
Co.

18

Prometheus

310,395

978,655

-68.3

312

7

995

125,113,489

Fox

19

Rock of Ages

282,945

271,991

4.0

322

6

879

37,966,459

Warner
Bros.

20

Men in Black
3

260,264

875,835

-70.3

266

9

978

175,476,727

Sony

Top
5

$ 208,227,981

$ 124,222,580

67.6

Top
10

221,423,729

150,002,519

47.6

Top
20

227,318,370

160,106,264

42.0

Top
20 vs. 2011

227,318,370

185,871,722

22.3

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.